[kutkloon7]

"Americans have an impoverished and immature conception of technology, one that fetishizes innovation as a kind of art and demeans upkeep as mere drudgery."

Pretty much hits the nail on the head, although I want to note this does not exclusively apply to Americans (but maybe a bit more than Europeans; technology is often a lot cheaper in the US: it is not uncommon that the amount of dollars paid for an item is lower than the amount of euros, even though euros are worth quite a bit more).

It is especially bad for phones. Many people I who are (almost annoyingly) aware of the environment buy a new phone every year.

I am guilty myself too. My current phone is about two years old. It has a full HD screen, a luxury that I don't even need on my laptop (about half of the time, I work on a 1440x900 thinkpad). And, to be honest, it is getting quite sluggish. When I open dropbox or tinder, I experience a delay up to 10 seconds, which is quite ridiculous (it especially bothers me that software seems to get slower, more bloated, and more abstract and complicated). People's first reaction to hearing this is "Just buy a new phone, man". I shouldn't be, but I am indeed considering this.